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Battle royale looms over sage grouse habitat

Interior Secretary considering review of conservation agreement

By Bruce Finley

The Denver Post

Posted:
06/04/2017 10:07:01 PM MDT

Western leaders, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, are opposing a possible Trump administration push to overhaul federal plans for protecting greater sage grouse across a Texas-sized area in 10 states.

Those plans were negotiated over five years by state and federal wildlife officials — with private landowners, conservationists and industry groups participating — as an alternative to listing the imperiled sage grouse as an endangered species.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last week stayed mum on whether he'll move ahead on a review of the plans.

"Secretary Zinke has made clear his commitment to working with, rather than against, local communities and being a good neighbor to private landowners," Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a prepared statement. "The Interior Department is looking forward to working with state and local partners to ensure we are striking a true balance between both conservation and responsible multiple use of our public lands."

Hickenlooper, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went to Washington, D.C., recently and raised their concerns in a meeting with Zinke. Hickenlooper and Mead also sent Zinke letters dated April 19 and May 26 opposing proposed changes that would move "from a habitat-management model to one that sets population objectives for the states," they wrote.

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"This is not the right decision," they wrote.

Federal Bureau of Land Management officials have yet to implement to plans, which protect the sagebrush habitat grouse need to survive.

Greater sage grouse once numbered in the millions but have declined to between 200,000 and 500,000 — a population that fluctuates widely year to year. The survivors are clumped around 165 million acres of sagebrush steppe stretching from Colorado up to the Dakotas and out to California, habitat that also is home to 300 other species, including golden eagles. Federal authorities in 2010 deemed grouse worthy of protection under the Endangered Species Act, which could force federal restrictions on land use to prevent extinction.

States helped lead efforts to develop voluntary protection plans to be administered by the BLM.

If this hard-fought compromise approach is changed, conservation groups probably will push again to list grouse as an endangered species, said John Swartout, senior adviser for Hickenlooper on natural resources issues. "There's a high risk environment groups would sue. They would say the basis for the nonlisting decision has been removed."

"Landowners want certainty for grazing. Oil and gas companies want certainty for making capital investments. How does creating chaos help anybody?" Swartout asked. "We want him to meet with us before he makes any decision. The Western governors have worked really hard. It wasn't easy. We don't want to see all that go to waste."

In September 2015, Interior officials decided not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, relying instead on the state-led voluntary plans to prevent extinction of the bird. That "not-warranted" decision marked a shift after federal officials in 2010 determined that grouse needed protection under the Endangered Species Act to survive onslaughts of agricultural, housing and industrial energy development.

The voluntary approach was hailed as a new teamwork approach to species conservation across large landscapes.

Conservation groups such as WildEarth Guardians said the plans BLM officials would implement contain crippling flaws. And oil and gas industry groups led by the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to block limits on fossil fuels drilling in grouse habitat.

Conservation group leaders this week said they'll evaluate details of any changes to grouse protection plans or implementation, but emphasized they'd oppose a shift to setting state grouse population numbers, rather than habitat protection to ensure the long-term survival of the species.

"From everything I've heard, what the administration is suggesting is fatally flawed," said Brian Rutledge, vice president of the National Audubon Society and director of that group's sagebrush ecosystem initiative.

"It would put us in a position of having to petition for an Endangered Species Act listing," Rutledge said.

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